I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

The sooner people realize that phones are small PC's maybe we can get away from OS lock-in. I should be able to choose a phone, then a carrier, and then my fav OS. Naturally, some OS vendors will only support certain hardware.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

Even within the Samsung lineup, the Gear is incompatible with more devices than devices with which it is compatible.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

Even within the Samsung lineup, the Gear is incompatible with more devices than devices with which it is compatible.

Once again Samsung shames Google with the level of support of their phones. The Samsung S3 was launched 5 months before the RAZR HD. The Samsung phone gets android 4.3, Google's previous flagship gets nothing and is stuck with an incredibly buggy 4.1 rom.

Motorola is a disaster and should never be trusted with their support pledges, not even after Google's acquisition.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

I don't know, I think if you sell (and heavily advertise) a $300 product that can't work independently of a phone but is only compatible with a single phone, you deserve to take a little heat.

Along with disliking the Samsung skin, the reason I wanted to go with the Nexus was due to prompt updates in the past and Samsung not updating... of course every other Nexus has it already... sigh Verizon

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

Even within the Samsung lineup, the Gear is incompatible with more devices than devices with which it is compatible.

The latest Core i7 processor is incompatible with more Intel devices than which it is compatible. Doesn't mean Intel did anything wrong. Sometimes design and engineering dictates that you have to break compatibility in order to progress.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

I don't know, I think if you sell (and heavily advertise) a $300 product that can't work independently of a phone but is only compatible with a single phone, you deserve to take a little heat.

Disagreed. The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere. By the end of this month it should be compatible with all of their flagship phones which the potential early adopters are likely to have.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

Even within the Samsung lineup, the Gear is incompatible with more devices than devices with which it is compatible.

So is Apples new power connector...

Good point. Let's turn this into Apple bashing, because, after all, it's more satisfying than admitting that Samsung screwed up.

Once again Samsung shames Google with the level of support of their phones. The Samsung S3 was launched 5 months before the RAZR HD. The Samsung phone gets android 4.3, Google's previous flagship gets nothing and is stuck with an incredibly buggy 4.1 rom.

Motorola is a disaster and should never be trusted with their support pledges, not even after Google's acquisition.

You're referring to Moto Mobility. Even though they're a subsidiary of Google, they're still running somewhat independently. Quit trying to conflate the two. If you want a Nexus, buy a Nexus.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

Even within the Samsung lineup, the Gear is incompatible with more devices than devices with which it is compatible.

So is Apples new power connector...

Good point. Let's turn this into Apple bashing, because, after all, it's more satisfying than admitting that Samsung screwed up.

I didn't see that as Apple bashing, especially taken in context with what he was replying to. I actually love the lightning connectors. So much easier than Micro USB. And adapters are cheap.

Once again Samsung shames Google with the level of support of their phones. The Samsung S3 was launched 5 months before the RAZR HD. The Samsung phone gets android 4.3, Google's previous flagship gets nothing and is stuck with an incredibly buggy 4.1 rom.

Motorola is a disaster and should never be trusted with their support pledges, not even after Google's acquisition.

I'm pretty sure the RazrHD was completely a Motorola device and the first "Google influenced" Motorola device is the MotoX.. and since it already has BT4.0 LE and can't do Multi-User since it's a phone, my guess is it will skip to 4.4.. guess we'll see how that works out and how quickly, but I hardly call this Samsung "shaming" Google..

I'll be keeping a close eye on just that, since I'm down to choosing either a Verizon Moto X or jumping ship in December to At&t prepaid with a Nexus5 after my Gnex contract expires..

Once again Samsung shames Google with the level of support of their phones. The Samsung S3 was launched 5 months before the RAZR HD. The Samsung phone gets android 4.3, Google's previous flagship gets nothing and is stuck with an incredibly buggy 4.1 rom.

Motorola is a disaster and should never be trusted with their support pledges, not even after Google's acquisition.

You have a strange definition of "flagship". As others have mentioned, Motorola mobility is run mostly independently of Google/Android.

The actual current flagship android phone is undoubtedly the Nexus 4 made by LG. My Nexus received the 4.3 update within 48 hours of 4.3 being announced.

The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere.

Do you live under a fucking rock like Patrick from Spongebob? The ad budget for the Gear is enormous, you can't avoid the commercials for it if you even casually watch TV. They're pouring millions of dollars into marketing it, you couldn't be more off base.

The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere.

Do you live under a fucking rock like Patrick from Spongebob? The ad budget for the Gear is enormous, you can't avoid the commercials for it if you even casually watch TV. They're pouring millions of dollars into marketing it, you couldn't be more off base.

:judge:

No, I live in an apartment, with cable TV that I casually watch. And I just posed your question to the two other people at the dog park with me. One is an avid TV watcher but she could not recall seeing it. The other watches TV occasionally and remembers seeing it once.

I was in two Verizon stores within the past week and saw no marketing materials for the Galaxy Gear.

I dislike how Ars repeatedly points out that very few devices are compatible with the Galaxy Gear. Only techies are likely to want one of these devices, and it's likely that most techies that want one are already going to have one of the more recent Samsung phones. Thus, lack of compatibility is a non-issue for the intended audience.

I don't know, I think if you sell (and heavily advertise) a $300 product that can't work independently of a phone but is only compatible with a single phone, you deserve to take a little heat.

Disagreed. The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere. By the end of this month it should be compatible with all of their flagship phones which the potential early adopters are likely to have.

I've seen a good number of their advertisements for it, and I hardly ever watch TV except when I walk down to the pub. It's basically a series of clips of TV shows that have some kind of wrist communication device.It looks cool, on the surface. The details that are enough to turn me off to it, and discourage people from taking it seriously, are the limited compatibility (my Pebble can work with anything Android or iOS) and the battery life (a day? my Pebble lasts a week). I'm also leery of how much functionality they tried to cram into it. It seems ripe for bugs.

I honestly think their target audience is executives with more money than sense, who just want to look cool. Their ads are deceptive, and they're going to be seeing a lot of returns if they don't do a better job of communicating to customers that this thing only works with a couple Samsung models.

The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere.

Do you live under a fucking rock like Patrick from Spongebob? The ad budget for the Gear is enormous, you can't avoid the commercials for it if you even casually watch TV. They're pouring millions of dollars into marketing it, you couldn't be more off base.

:judge:

No, I live in an apartment, with cable TV that I casually watch. And I just posed your question to the two other people at the dog park with me. One is an avid TV watcher but she could not recall seeing it. The other watches TV occasionally and remembers seeing it once.

I was in two Verizon stores within the past week and saw no marketing materials for the Galaxy Gear.

What's the marketing budget for the Gear?

Regardless, in a world where I went into best buy today and saw pebble smartwatches not just on the shelf, but with a display/demo unit, if either you or Samsung thinks these things are only for early adopters, you're in for a painful wake up call.

The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere.

Do you live under a fucking rock like Patrick from Spongebob? The ad budget for the Gear is enormous, you can't avoid the commercials for it if you even casually watch TV. They're pouring millions of dollars into marketing it, you couldn't be more off base.

The Galaxy Gear is targeted at early adopters from what I can tell, I haven't seen it advertised anywhere.

Do you live under a fucking rock like Patrick from Spongebob? The ad budget for the Gear is enormous, you can't avoid the commercials for it if you even casually watch TV. They're pouring millions of dollars into marketing it, you couldn't be more off base.

:judge:

I haven't seen them in Japan, nor on American hulu plus. I also haven't seen it featured on any Google ads.

The lack of timely updates on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (and lack of new Nexus phones) is what irritates me the most about Verizon. I've been testing a Nexus 4 on Straight Talk (AT&T towers) and luckily it seems to work pretty good. I guess AT&T has been beefing up their coverage the last few years in this area.

What that means is since Verizon isn't interested in playing nice with everyone else, they'll be losing 5 smartphone subscriptions from my company early next year when all of the contracts run out. And Google will be getting 4 new orders for the Nexus 5 (if it reviews as good as the leaks appear).

2. When my gf received the latest update for get note 1 (a few months ago), it slowed down the phone, disabled widgets, interfered with messages, etc (so she got an iphone 5c and won't be going back to Android).

Is there any way to block/refuse/disable updates? For me, I rely on third party apps for almost everything (email, media apps, etc), so I don't want to gamble and end up breaking all the stuff that I've finally got working fairly well on my phone.